Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

i went to bed at 10:30pm last night and woke up at 7, fuck the haters

Even he selfishly violated his quarantine to fuck over his brother!

Xxxxpost

My son has been waking up at 4:30 AM, and usually can be assuaged, but I'm having a tough time getting back to sleep for the 4:30 - 6:30 time period. So the sleep is fitful and interrupted, which is a recipe for crankitude.

As someone else mentioned upthread, I've been putting my phone into Airplane mode at 8pm every night and then just watching TV or reading a book or whatever until bed time

― groovypanda, Monday, March 23, 2020 4:07 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sound advice imo! I've had no trouble sleeping, and do switch off the phone and such earlier than normal (it "helps" that I'm drawn to the news all day already because of work, so I'm satiated come 9pm). Reading a book an hour before sleeping has been doing wonders for me, even before this kicked off.

From my ex who is a nurse in NOLA:

"Our ICU is full—all with COVID patients and all on ventilators. Opening another floor as ICU to take more patients. This is serious y’all. STAY HOME. I don’t care if your local bar is staying open or if you have spring break plans. Unless you want to be on a ventilator, or possibly cause someone else to be (if you’re carrying the virus asymptomatically), stay home. Stop hoarding supplies. Get what you need. Use it."

can’t remember if i shared this yet or not but there was quite a call-in on Radio Ulster over the weekend:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0877mb2

I'm sleeping great.

So am I! Because I don't have to get up and go to fucking work in the morning, I expect.

I'm keeping my home office space separate pretty well so far

having flashbacks to the time when I was in college and did some working remote and could literally roll out of my bed into my desk chair because my room was so narrow

I usually don't have any problems sleeping, but last night my anxiety kept waking me up. I've been particularly struggling with a feedback loop: For the last couple of weeks, I've had a mild postnasal drip that I'm almost positive is related to allergies, but it sometimes causes a slight sore throat and/or chest congestion, which makes me so anxious (even though I have no other COVID symptoms) that I start physically manifesting feelings of tension and discomfort, which then exacerbates the anxiety. It hasn't become a full-blown panic attack, but I feel like it's just on a constant low boil.

I'm getting more sleep than usual but given that I usually get < 6 hrs. sleep/night this is probably a good thing.

Had my first covid-related dreams last night. Surely not the last. At least they weren't nightmares.

got 12hr sleep on Saturday, like 4hr last night, feel terrible (in a usual sleep-deprived way) today

we were supposed to go to video/phone visits today, but it's not active until 1pm so i'm still seeing a handful this morning. one of the other providers flatly said that she would not see patients in person (she's in her 60s) and i'm towing the line. still gotta round in the hospital this weekend, not thrilled about that

I am really picking and choosing when I drink alcohol to keep my immune system up but I have also started eating cheese like it's a life sustaining force.

What do you mean 'like'

you know how Raggedy Ann dolls had candy hearts sewn into them? I think I have a mozzarella ball in place of a non-vital organ.

At least you don't have to worry about the tp shortage. Silver linings!

raggedy ann dolls had what now!?!?

For the last couple of weeks, I've had a mild postnasal drip that I'm almost positive is related to allergies, but it sometimes causes a slight sore throat and/or chest congestion, which makes me so anxious (even though I have no other COVID symptoms) that I start physically manifesting feelings of tension and discomfort, which then exacerbates the anxiety. It hasn't become a full-blown panic attack, but I feel like it's just on a constant low boil.

I have the exact same thing; I think it's a pretty common reaction from what I've heard.

xpost I just googled to make sure I wasn't imagining it. But the candy hearts was a thing. I remember making raggedy ann knockoffs for charities and sewing other things into their chests.

This was me last night, exactly

xp trying not to obsess over whether or not my throat feels weird

I even tried yoga for the first time in my life

i have the same allergy post-nasal drip thing at all times. if you guys aren't taking claritin d (or the walgreens "walitin d" lol) already i recommend it. when i remember to take it i feel more sure i don't have covid-19!

see also waking up with a sore throat because when my nose is stuffed i sleep with my mouth open, panicking

I keep reading articles about symptoms and OF COURSE hours later I'm still thinking about them and imagining I have them.

Was that a tickle in my throat?
Did I just draw a more difficult breath there?
I coughed!

I always feel fine later and the next day, but I hate how much this worms into my head and anxieties.

Would've thought rain would wash it out of the air and make it harder for droplets from coughing etc to stay airbourne outside. And it would also probably encourage people to stay home xp

― ymo sumac (NickB), Monday, March 23, 2020 5:59 AM (six hours ago)

This is the kind of thing that nags at me once I've read it. For the last two weeks I've operated under the assumption (gleaned from various sources) that it only lives in the air if you're in close proximity to someone and they sneeze or speak or even breathe--it can be transmitted that way, and if not, the virus falls to the ground. I also know it can stay airborne longer if aerosols are present.

But if it's out there, hanging around from someone who ten minutes earlier walked by where you are now, how can it possibly be combated? And wouldn't infection rate be close to 100% by now?

(xpost) Same here. Every time I clear my throat, I wonder if that's the beginning of a dry cough.

But if it's out there, hanging around from someone who ten minutes earlier walked by where you are now, how can it possibly be combated? And wouldn't infection rate be close to 100% by now?

While it's hanging around in the air, it is being dispersed, even on a still day. I presume the more virus you inhale, the greater the chance you have of actually catching C19 the disease, so as it disperses it becomes less dangerous. That's why enclosed badly ventilated areas are worse - you really wouldn't want to get into an elevator that someone with C19 had been coughing away in ten minutes beforehand

I'm thinking of daily fresh-air walks. I didn't come within 20 feet of anybody today. (Well, okay, one person, on a bridge--I stepped onto the road for about a five-foot buffer.) Can I same the same of the virus?

I think there are differing schools of thoughts on how it spreads, but I am pretty sure you're ok to take walks

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/transmission.html

you really wouldn't want to get into an elevator that someone with C19 had been coughing away in ten minutes beforehand

― ymo sumac (NickB), Monday, 23 March 2020 17:07 (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

well we havent used our apt elevator since that aul fella got in and proceeded to cough his boots up all over us last week, so yknow

I guess there's a chance you inhaled a single virion or two, but that one virion has to make it through your body's various defences before it can do any damage - it could get trapped in nasal mucus or destroyed by saliva or swallowed and destroyed by stomach acid or simply just exhaled again. So you'd need to inhale a few of the things to make you ill and the further away you are from someone, the more the concentration of virus decreases xps

well we havent used our apt elevator since that aul fella got in and proceeded to cough his boots up all over us last week, so yknow

yep, it's a whole new era of taking the stairs

This was a terrible week to have a condo go on the market.

My asthmatic friend made arrangements to go view apartments last week (buying) and I had to curse him out by text for him to cancel.

pretty sure that house next door some people bought and somewhat cheaply remodeled to flip is going to sit empty quite a bit longer

huh, I may be wrong? pending offer, supposedly

i was scheduled to put my apt up for sale for the end of April! ( I was dying to do it last year and I finally gave my friends living there a super long notice - 8 months). I really know how to nail the market.

THat there's another sibling disease waiting in the wings to understudy this mess when it ends.
Lovely.
How messed up would we be then.

Like how long an interval before the next major disease do you think we would need to recover and how likely is that interval going to be.

need to stop fucking with animals and their natural habitat.

Leave those bats alone.

we'll be better prepared next time - look at how SARS affected countries have responded to this disaster for an example

We know a couple of realtors, and they say business is booming, so it might be better than you think, xpost. Interest rates are so low right now that people want to buy. The friends we know that are in a tougher position are those selling bigger or more expensive homes, because people who might have been in the market for them have seen their wealth decrease precipitously.

yeah, except my apt is in nyc and if my friends can't move and I can't even get into the country...logistics!

although they are trying to move because they are worried about loss of ft employment and not having that to be able to sign a new lease.

Leave those bats alone.

All in all you're just a

a very slight silver lining is that I already had problems falling asleep so anxiety isn't doing anything that didn't already happen nightly

One of the pubs where I DJ is selling bottles of ale from a table in their doorway at knock-down prices (two quid for 500ml, get in). I mentioned that we're nearly out of bog roll, and the landlord promptly fetched me two jumbo pub-sized rolls from the stock room. This is the best thing that has happened to me in DAYS. I feel ridiculously elated.

You’re not gonna catch it by walking through space occupied by someone who does:

https://thespinoff.co.nz/science/21-03-2020/siouxsie-wiles-a-reminder-that-covid-19-still-isnt-airborne/

Personal update: WFH preparations at work have been very slow, mainly because the supply chain that provides the necessary hardware is very obviously stymied by the health emergency, but at least as far as the data side goes we're all set and all the necessary tests have been successfully done. Since we're considered an "essential service" this doesn't mean all of us will have to abide by WFH restrictions if we don't have the space at home to set up home offices, but I've cleaned up my own little home office and cleared enough space for the monitor, laptop, etc., that will be required for work. In the meantime, it's been exceptionally awkward keeping to the social distancing requirements at work and we've all kinda gone a little overboard with using antibacterial wipes on our work surfaces. On a plus note at least these surfaces have never looked more gleaming and there's a faint astringent note to the air.

Local update: We've just had our first local casualty. At least 45 locals have tested positive, with 10 being confirmed community transmissions. This is just 0.003% of the population affected so we're still relatively safe, but it'd be better to stay that way than to risk having the disease spread the way it has in Washington state. And I, like Katherine, already had massive anxiety issues so while this isn't helping my mental health any at least it's not introducing new horrors into my life.

to be fair I was thinking more garden-variety insomnia for insomnia's sake